Reasons to get a Tablet in 2012

Guest post by Joe Pawlikowski.

The tablet craze is starting to catch on. In 2011, people bought millions of tablets, and in 2012 they’ll buy even more. While those who will buy in 2012 are a bit behind, they still have an advantage. They’ll be getting the latest technology, which is always a benefit of being a late adopter. That’s even more exciting in 2012, when tablets could take big steps forward. There are many reasons to get a tablet in 2012.

1. Better screens

In some ways it’s difficult to imagine higher resolution screens than we have on current tablets. It seems manufacturers came a long way in that regard in 2011. But in 2012 we could see even higher resolution screens. Rumor has is the iPad 3 will feature a retina display, a feature present on the iPhone 4’s small screen but not on the iPad 2. If the screen resolution does reach the rumored 2048 x 1536 pixels, more and more people could adopt the iPad as a primary visual device.

2. Laptop-like processors

Already people are ditching their laptops and starting to do work from tablets. Even more people are turning to tablets as primary entertainment devices. It’s easy to see why. Because of their touchscreens tablets have easier interfaces, and with the myriad apps available they can do most things a laptop can. They’ll get closer in 2012, as manufacturers are able to fit even more transistors on the same-sized chip; see Moore’s Laws. That means tablet performance will get closer to laptop performance this year. With at least one quad-core tablet already on the market, the Asus Transformer Prime, we should see a lot more, and even better, in 2012.

3. Even more apps

While the app selection always grows in the mobile space, the app selection on tablets figures to explode in 2012. Not only are there more developers making tablet apps and with better performing tablets there will be even more developers cranking them out, but there is still an enormous backlog of smartphone apps that aren’t tablet-optimized. This is an issue on both Android and iPad. Anyone who owns both an iPad and an iPhone gets excited the first time she syncs them. That’s so many more apps on the iPad! Yet when you open them, the screen size is reduced to the iPhone size. Developers will update these apps and make them tablet-optimized, further extending the app library on both Android and iOS in 2012.

4. Even better battery life

Not only will tablets start to perform on the level of laptops, but they’ll also retain one huge advantage: battery life. Tablets are already a model of energy efficiency, lasting hours upon hours even with heavy use. A fresh iPad battery, for instance, can power you through an entire season of a TV show, with some battery life to spare. Tablet manufacturers have an incentive to continue this uber-efficiency. If tablets are going to become bigger parts of our lives, we need them to last as long as possible. Faster processors and internet connections can drain batteries. Manufacturers have to combat this by creating new efficiency methods that help keep that active battery life at around 10 hours.

5. More interactivity

We save perhaps the most exciting for last. A tablet can be wonderful by itself. We can sit on our couches and watch movies, we can play games, we can do basically anything we can do on a computer, but with a small and svelte device. One thing that figures to improve in 2012 is the level of interactivity between tablets. More collaborative abilities means more people will want to use tablets. It’s a perpetual growth cycle, though it needs a critical mass of users to start. If we haven’t yet reached that critical mass we will in 2012. And that will mean great things for all tablet users.

While 2011 was a breakout year for tablets, 2012 figures to be a landmark one. New technologies abound, and tablets will become even better because of them. It’s prime time to buy, so if you feel behind the times without a tablet, don’t. There are more than enough reasons to get excited for the new tablets in 2012.

This was a guest post by Joe Pawlikowski who is the editor of Prepaid Reviews, a site that provides news, commentary, and reviews of prepaid wireless services.

Raju PP Founder-Editor Raju is the founder-editor of Technology Personalized. A proud geek and an Internet freak, who is also a social networking enthusiast. You can follow him on Facebook and on Twitter. Mail Raju PP. Follow rajupp